Influence of the barriers on the temperature dependence of threshold current in GaAs/AlGaAs quantum well lasers

One of the advantages predicted for quantum well lasers over conventional `3D´ double heterostructure (DH) lasers is a reduction in the temperature sensitivity of the threshold current (I_th), due to the effect of dimensionality on the temperature dependence of the effective density of states. In an ideal 2D system the density of states varies linearly with temperature (T), rather than as T^3/2 in bulk materials, and this leads to the prediction that I_th should be roughly proportional to T in a quantum well laser, rather than T^3/2 as in a DH laser